SERMON OUTLINE

Careful Living in 2010 (Ephesians 5.15)

A New Life with a New Mind Ephesians 4.20-21

But you not so learned Christ, if indeed Him you heard and in Him were taught, as truth is in Jesus. Ephesians 4.20-21

Therefore

> Verse 17 begins with “Therefore” and looks back to what has been written.

1) God chose you and called you in Christ: We once were sinners but now are saints. Ephesians 1.4; 2.4-5

2) God called you in Christ to be holy and blameless. Ephesians 2.10; 4.24

3) God called you in Christ to be part of the Church: A dwelling of God, to Glorify God, to bring maturity to the Church. Ephesians 2.21-22; 3.10-11; 4.16

> Therefore Paul insists that you no longer live as you did in the past, but in a new way worthy of your calling.

But You

> “Learned Christ” Learning must become life in Christ. From head to heart, form knowledge to living. From truth about Christ to a relationship with the person of Christ.

> “Heard Christ” God opened their darkened mind, and softened their hardened hearts, and sensitized their conscience, in order to bring them to conviction of sin, to understanding of salvation in Christ, and to believing faith. 1 Thessalonians 1.4-5, 2.13; Acts 2.37; Matthew 13.11-16.

> “Taught in Christ” We need to be in Christ before we can be taught in Christ. The natural man does not understand the truths of God.1 Corinthians 2.14

How

> Put off the old man.

> Be renewed in the spirit of your mind

> Put on the new man

Conclusion

The only possible conclusion is that we live a new life in Christ. So put on the new which is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

SERMON NOTES

Careful Living in 2010 (Ephesians 5.15)

A New Life with a New Mind Ephesians 4.17-24

–Verses 20 to 24 teach us how we came into our new life in Christ, how we are to live it out, and what results should be evident in this new life. Before we study these verses I want to look back to verse 17 because verse 17 is the introduction to verses 20 to 24 and to the rest of the teaching on how to live as a Christian in this letter to the Ephesian believers.

-In verse 17 Paul insists in the Lord that we must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. We are no longer to live aimless, empty, purposeless lives. We are to live/walk in a different way than the way we used to live. Verse 17 begins with “So” which translates the word “therefore”. “Therefore” points back to what Paul has been writing about believers in this letter. Let me mention three things that Paul has said about you as a believer.

1) God chose you in Christ. Ephesians 1.4 says, “God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world”. All of us were born in sin and under the condemnation of God. We lived according to the descriptions given in Ephesians 2.1-3 and 4.17-19. One day the great “But” of Ephesians 2.4 came into our lives, “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Because God chose you before the creation of the world, He also called you in time and history by His Grace, through Jesus Christ. Understanding this great work of God’s grace Paul writes in 4.1, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you received”. “Look at the great privilege that God has given to you! God’s choosing and God’s calling demands a new way of living from you. Therefore I insist in the Lord that you no longer live as you did in the past.

2)  God called you in Christ to be holy and blameless. God did not just call you in Christ to go to heaven. He called you to make you into holy and blameless people that reflect His Holy and Loving character in your daily lives. You are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. (2.10) Paul will tell us a lot more about what this holy and blameless living looks like in 4.25 and following. Since we are called of God to be holy and blameless, therefore Paul insists in the Lord that we live in a new way. In 4.24 we are told to “put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”. God chose you to be righteous and holy so you should no longer live as a sinner.

3) God called you in Christ to be part of the Church. You once were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, without hope and without God in the world. God chose you in Christ, God called you in Christ, God made you part of His family, and God joined you to one another in the Church. “In Christ the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” (2.21-22) What an honor! We are being formed into the living temple of God where God lives by His Spirit. Paul writes in 3.10-11, “God’s intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What a calling, what a status, what a high position, what a responsibility. As part of the Church we are bringing Glory to God according to God’s eternal purpose. In chapter 4 Paul tells us about God’s provision for the Church, and God’s gifts to the Church, and the maturity expected in the Church. 4.16 says, “From Christ the whole body (the Church), joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” As a part of the Church we have a responsibility to bring maturity to the Church. That responsibility requires that we live a new life in Christ. Because we are part of the process of maturity in the Church Paul says, therefore I insist in the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, as you used to walk, but walk in your new life, in a new way.

-God chose you and called you to belong to Him, with an expectation of holy and blameless behavior, and to take part in the purpose and maturity of the Church. With these three magnificent realities in mind Paul says, therefore I insist in the Lord that you live in a new way, a way that drastically departs from the way you used to live, and think, and choose.

-Paul begins verse 20 with a sudden, dramatic, abrupt, contrast to what he has been describing in verses 17 to 19. The first two words in verse 20 are “But you”. Something has happened to you! You are no longer what you used to be. God has dramatically changed your life in Christ. You are no longer the ignorant sinner with the darkened mind, separated from God, following your lusts. You have “learned Christ” and that should take you toward truth, righteousness, holiness and love. Make sure that it does. Be very careful how you live.

-What Paul says in verse 20 is, “But you not so learned Christ”. What does Paul mean by the phrase “you learned Christ”? To say we learned a person is not proper English or Greek. Not found in any other Greek writings. We say we learned about a person or about something, but here Paul says they learned Christ. Paul is making a very important point with this unusual phrase.

-What God is seeking to communicate to us in this phrase is that learning must become life in Christ. Being a Christian is the result of learning Biblical truth and doctrine which centers on the person of Christ, and then by obedience and the working of the Holy Spirit having that truth and doctrine so become part of our life that it leads to knowing the person of Christ in our hearts. Knowing truth and the person of Christ then leads to a changed life. Learning Christ is understanding truth with the mind and then experiencing truth in the heart and life. Learning Christ is learning that changes us at the deepest level and results in conformity to Christ. The Christian life is not just knowing Bible truths. The Christian life must move from knowing to living, doing and experience. The Christian life is about knowing and understanding Christ, and then having Christ life His life in us in the power of the Holy Spirit.

-Paul’s point here is that learning Christ has brought them understanding, and moved them from ignorance and darkness, sin, lust and wicked behavior, to a new life, a new mind and a new direction them to holy and righteous living.

-Paul explains how they learned Christ in verse 21. Verses 20 to 24 is one long sentence in the original. Let me give you the literal translation of verses 20 and 21. “But you not so learned Christ, if indeed Him you heard and in Him were taught, as truth is in Jesus.” Paul writes you learned Christ, if indeed Him you heard. Paul does not write you “heard of Him” as NIV has, but “if you heard Him”. Paul has no doubt that those he is writing to are Christians. What Paul is reminding these believers is that they have learned Christ because one day they heard Christ. Because they heard Christ they are now able to be taught in Christ. That is how they learned Christ.

-Now the Ephesians had never heard Christ teach them physically so what does Paul mean when he says they heard Christ and were taught in Christ? To say that a person has heard Christ means that either through preaching, discussion with a believer, by reading the Bible, or by some other means, God has opened their darkened mind, and softened their hardened hearts, and sensitized their conscience, in order to bring them to conviction of sin, to understanding of salvation in Christ, and to believing faith so that they called upon God to save them. They are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. To hear Christ is to have God bring the understanding and salvation, to have God give the capacity to hear His call, and to see the need of salvation in Christ. To hear Christ is to have the eyes opened and the mind realize who Jesus Christ is and why He came. It is the aha moment of salvation and calling upon the Lord.

-When Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers he said, “For we know, brothers loved of God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction”. Paul also wrote to them, “We thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe”. They heard Christ when they heard Paul preach the Gospel because the power of the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to them. (1 Thessalonians 1.4-5; 2.13)

-To hear Christ is not only to listen or read teaching about Christ but to have that teaching penetrate the heart and mind and conscience in a way that brings spiritual transformation. Only the Holy Spirit can do such a work in a hardened heart, and a darkened mind, and a desensitized conscience.

-When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost we are told that “when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2.37)

-One day after Jesus had been teaching the disciples came to Him and asked “Why do you speak to the people in parables? He replied, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” (Matthew 13.11-16)

-The Ephesians had heard the call of Christ and had been empowered to respond to that call, and now had minds and hearts that were teachable. Christianity is first of all an encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ and then a renewing of the mind in the truth about Jesus Christ. Our connection with the life of God in Christ is key to knowing and growing in the truth about Christ.

-Paul says that not only did they hear Christ but they were taught in Christ as the truth is in Jesus. Paul says they were taught in Christ. The truths of Christ can only be learned when we are in Christ. We first need the life of God in us before that truths of God can be understood by us, because the natural mind cannot understand the things of God. (1 Corinthians 2.14)

-In verses 22 to 24 Paul explains in general terms how this new life is to be lived out, and what the evidence of this new life should be. We are to put off the old man which is being corrupted by deceitful desires, and we are to be renewed in the spirit of the mind and put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. We will take a closer look at the truth in these verses next time we meet together at the end of February.

-When we realize what God has done for us and in us in Christ, all that God has provided for our conformity to His Son, and what God expects from us as the Church, the only possible conclusion we can come to is that we must live a new life, a righteous and holy life, and a loving life. Therefore I insist in the Lord that you no longer live as the world around you lives. You did not come to learn Christ that way, if indeed you have heard Christ and have been taught the truth in Christ. So put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

-God’s plea in the NT is that we think and act according to the new life God has given us in Christ.